William Goldenberg has been working as an editor for over 30 years, throughout which period he has collaborated with A-list administrators like Michael Mann (“Warmth,” “The Insider,” “Ali,” “Miami Vice”), Kathryn Bigelow (“Zero Darkish Thirty,” “Detroit”), and Ben Affleck, whose “Argo” gained the Oscar for greatest modifying. But when the time got here to direct his first function, the inspirational sports activities drama “Unstoppable,” there was nonetheless one factor made Goldenberg apprehensive: working with actors.
“That was the factor I used to be most nervous about,” Goldenberg informed IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “Fortunately for me, I received my first selection for everyone, they usually’re all spectacularly good actors, so it’s not like I’m taking a first-time actor and attempting to mildew the efficiency. It was about ensuring we’re all making the identical movie, that all of us have the identical targets and try to interpret the scenes in the identical method.”
Goldenberg shortly realized that there was a direct corollary between his expertise as an editor and what his actors wanted from him to get on the identical web page. “What ended up occurring was I spoke to the actors the best way I like a director to talk to me as an editor,” he stated. “I don’t have to offer Jennifer Lopez notes. I’m simply giving her the parameters and unloading all the data to her about what story I’m telling, and that’s the best way I like administrators to talk to me. It’s not inform me the place to chop, however inform me the way you wish to really feel, and I could make that occur.”
As soon as Goldenberg had set these parameters, the actors had been free to discover. “A lot of directing is simply casting the proper actors, which I really feel like I did,” he stated. “After which simply giving them a protected area to work. I informed all of the actors, if a sure line of dialogue doesn’t really feel proper to you, or doesn’t really feel prefer it’s the character, simply change it. Make it your individual. Consequently, I received a whole lot of completely different performances with completely different shadings and generally completely different phrases, however all with the identical intention.”
For Goldenberg, these distinctive contributions from the actors had been one of many largest pleasures of creating the film. “Each one of many actors had nice recommendations,” he stated. “Whether or not it was blocking or a line, there have been so many various issues. Don Cheadle, as a result of he’s directed, was so great and useful. He took Jharrel Jerome underneath his wing, and it served the story as a result of they received so shut that it actually did really feel like mentor and mentee. That’s clearly what he’s within the film, so it actually helped the general movie.”
Goldenberg discovered that the most important shock about directing was how a lot he instantly loved it. “I spent my complete profession on my own in a darkish room or with one assistant,” Goldenberg stated. “If there are 4 folks in a room, it’s a crowd. Being on a set with a whole bunch of folks that had been so gifted and so dedicated to creating the movie that I wished to make was a very great place to be.”
That stated, there was one shock that wasn’t fairly as optimistic: how shortly a day goes by. “We’d have a 7 a.m. name, and at 9 I’d take a look at the primary AD and say, ‘How are doing on time?’ ‘We’re behind.’ So that you spend a whole lot of time your watch, considering, ‘OK, I want eight photographs however I solely have two hours, so what can I drop and nonetheless get the scene that I would like?’ All that point administration stuff was tougher than I anticipated it to be.”
As joyful as Goldenberg is with “Unstoppable,” he has no plans to desert modifying completely for a directing profession. “I hope to shuttle,” he stated. “I like modifying, and I like the relationships with the administrators that I’ve labored with, and I’d hate to not have these relationships. I’m modifying a Paul Greengrass movie proper now, and I like Paul and I like his household. He provides me a lot artistic freedom. However I wish to direct once more. My plan is to go each different one, we’ll see how that works out.”